Email

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said Ambassador Khalilzad’s travels in the region showed “our commitment to a lasting peace agreement, hoping that we can facilitate the Afghans and the Taliban coming to some sort of lasting peace agreement”. — AFP/File

WASHINGTON: Both civil and military officials in the United States believe that there’s no military solution to the Afghan conflict and that’s why Washington is committed to a peace deal between Kabul and the Taliban, says the US State Department.

US special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, is currently in the region on a mission to seek a negotiated settlement to the 17-year conflict, which has so far killed about 150,000 people.

A prestigious US educational institution, Brown University, reported last week that America too has lost 6,334 people in Afghanistan since October 2001, mainly soldiers and contractors. More than 1,100 allied troops, have also been killed in this fight.

At a Tuesday afternoon news briefing in Washington, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said Ambassador Khalilzad’s travels in the region showed “our commitment to a lasting peace agreement, hoping that we can facilitate the Afghans and the Taliban coming to some sort of lasting peace agreement”.

This is Khalilzad’s third visit to the region in less than two months and takes him to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Qatar as part of a mission to persuade the rebels to work with the Afghan government for a peaceful settlement of this dispute.

“Our officials have long said, including the Department of Defence, that we don’t see a military solution to this [conflict] in Afghanistan,” Nauert said.

“Ambassador Khalilzad has been hard at work. I think he’s spent more time on an airplane or traveling overseas than he has back in Washington in the past month and a half or so since he’s taken on these duties.”

Responding to a question about an Afghan peace conference held in Moscow last week, Nauert said: “We see Russia, the Russian government doing this, where they will hold meetings related to hot topics around the world. That is certainly their right to do so.”

She pointed out that the US government sent a representative at the working level, “not to participate but just to observe in those discussions”.

The United States, however, is backing a separate ministerial conference, which will be held in Geneva on Nov 27 and 28. More than 50 nations are expected to participate in that conference.

Nauert disagreed with the suggestion that Washington wanted to delay the Afghan elections scheduled this year. “One of the things that is important to us is we’re committed to the overall electoral process. If there were to be any changes made to the scheduling, that would entirely be a decision on the part of Afghanistan, one in which we would not interfere.”

Comments (9) Closed

How many of those killed were innocent unarmed citizens of both Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Recommend0

Anonymouseeeee

Nov 15, 2018 11:32am

The vast majority of those killed were innocent local civilians.

Recommend0

Swiss Neutral

Nov 15, 2018 12:05pm

What a great conclusion after a long war of heavy losses.

Recommend0

Pak_UK

Nov 15, 2018 12:56pm

Isn’t that what we have been telling you to do. US must do more.

Recommend0

Shah

Nov 15, 2018 01:16pm

Western countries in general and US, UK, France and Israel in particular must understand that violence is never the solution. I urge Europeans and Americans to reconsider the approach to political disputes and use violence in self defense - and not in bombing, invading and occupying weaker Muslim countries. I just read that over 4 million Muslims have been killed since 9/11. When will the educated Western man and woman understand this great Human Right abuse? This number far exceed the number of deaths during the Crusades.

Recommend0

Saif Zulfiqar

Nov 15, 2018 01:21pm

Give government to Talibans, and everything will be OK. Let them run their country the way they want. Why are you worried.,